About Us
Zoey Handley
After years of convincing herself that it was an impossible dream, Zoey Handley took her first steps into a career in video game media and started the Game Complaint Department (now Maximum Utmost, the site you see now). Before long, she somehow accomplished her dream by writing for publications like GameSpot, Nintendo Force, and Destructoid. Even better, some people say they like her writing! On the internet! A place where nobody says anything nice!
Not knowing what else to do, she leans on her love of the weird, the awful, and the retro to entertain. Her new dream is to just stay submerged in video games and leave her fingerprints on everything. Right now, she likes writing reviews. She likes writing so many reviews.
Jonathan Holmes
If you have any problems with modern media, Jonathan Holmes is probably to blame. He helped usher in the dominance of reality TV by appearing on Road Rules: Northern Trail, the first season to feature the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Then a decade or so later he became one of the first gaming YouTubers and streamers, co-hosting The Destructoid Show, creating the abysmal cartoon Teenage Pokemon, and live streaming complete playthroughs of games like Super Meat Boy on Justin.TV (the original name for Twitch). He also is the cohost of troubling podcasts like Dismal Jesters and Boston’s Favorite Son, the birthplace of the word(?) Chungus.
To try to make up for it, he’s been working behind the scenes to make gaming magazines relevant again, writing and providing art for such periodicals as Nintendo Force Magazine, A Profound Waste of Time, Lost in Cult’s Lock-On, Gamebound’s Generations, as well as a handful essays for art books by Limited Run Games. He also runs a not-troubling podcast called Talking to Women about Videogames.
Patrick Hancock
One of Patrick’s core memories is playing some iconic edu-tainment games like Oregon Trail and Treasure Mathstorm in fifth grade, so now it’s a bit surreal that he gets to write about video games online and also has a career as a teacher. Kind of like a Patrick Hancock Teaches History instead of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. Except now it’s closer to Hancock Tries To Figure Out If This Work Is Actually AI Or Not.
Joining Destructoid in 2011 after being a community member and previously writing for AbleGamers, Patrick felt out of his league with some of the titans of the industry also on staff. He’s always had a “I’m just happy to be here” mentality regarding video games media, and the same can be said now at Maximum Utmost!